The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for displaying guide program information from a memory in a videotape cassette which is capable of storing a plurality of video programs.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional system for recording a plurality of programs with program guide data on a videotape cassette. A program recording device 20 is connected to an antenna 28 for receiving a program to be recorded on the tape cassette 2. In the illustrated system, the program recording device 20 is a videotape cassette recorder (VCR).
The recording device 20 has a video signal recorder 21 that accepts a signal from the tuner 25 and records the program on the tape cassette 2. In the illustrated VCR, the video program is recorded on a magnetic tape 29. The program recording device 20 has the capability of recording a plurality of VCR programs separately on the magnetic tape 29.
The tuner 25 is also connected to a microprocessor 22. The microprocessor 22 receives program data from the tuner 25 which is stored as part of the program guide data in memory 24.
Once processed by the microprocessor 22, the data stored in the memory 24 is recorded in the storage portion 9 of the tape cassette 2. The storage portion 9 is a separate memory storage unit from the magnetic tape 29. In one system, the cassette tape 2 is a videotape cassette with a built-in non-volatile memory commonly referred to as a "MIC."
The program guide information data in memory 24 is mirrored in the storage portion 9 of the recording medium 2. Upon completion of the recording of a program or programs, the microprocessor 22 copies the contents of memory 24 through an I.sup.2 C bus 26 to the storage portion 9. The I.sup.2 C transfer method is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,740.
Additional program guide data may be manually inputted by the user into the program guide data stored in memory 24 using key input 23. This enables the user to greatly expand the information which appears in the program guide that is later displayed.
FIG. 2 shows an example of the type of program guide information which may be recorded and displayed. As discussed briefly above, this data may be either automatically inputted from the tuner 25 or manually entered by the user through the key input 7. Additionally, several television program broadcast signals now include information such as the title of the program and the recording time that can be automatically placed in the program guide data. One such service is known by the service mark "VCR Plus."
Without some form of indexing function, the user must manually scroll through the tape to learn the videotape's contents. This obviously requires much time and effort. Two basic approaches have been used in conventional VCR's to simplify this process.
First, an index signal may be selectively recorded with each program resident on the videotape. This enables the user to more quickly and sequentially scan through the videotape from index to index in viewing the contents of the memory. Alternatively, the VCR may generate a guide program after scanning the tape. This general approach is both time consuming and cumbersome for the user since the tape must be processed in order to learn the contents of the cassette.
Second, a related approach uses indexing on the videotape while maintaining a guide program in a separate memory of the cassette tape. In such an apparatus and method, the title, location and length of a program is recorded in a memory resident within the cassette tape. This approach has an inherent problem in that the memory can be read only when the cassette tape is loaded in the VCR. As a result, the user cannot know the index information without first loading the tape into the VCR.